This Tuesday, the tension was built up until the finish of this 62nd edition of the GP de Denain (1.Pro, 21/09), in which more than 20 kilometer of cobbles had to be covered in the second race half. After the first loop of 100 kilometer around Denain without any difficulties, during which five leaders preceded the peloton by five minutes, Ineos Grenadiers opened the spectacle.
The black team accelerated with 80 kilometer to go on one of the first of twelve cobble sections. The early breakaway was replaced by twelve new leaders, including Quinten Hermans. Taco van der Hoorn missed the breakaway because of a crash on the second cobble section and wanted a second chance with 30 kilometer to go. Unfortunately the Dutch rider didn’t manage to bridge to the leaders on the cobbles between Maing and Quérénaing, which are also part of the Paris-Roubaix route.
In his last road race of the season, Hermans showed his qualities by being one of the four last survivors of the breakaway with Kwiatkowski, Dewulf and Davy. The cyclocross specialist was finally caught by the peloton on the last cobble section, 10 kilometer before the finish. van der Hoorn, Kreder and De Gendt united around Baptiste Planckaert, who sprinted to 8th place. In this way, the Belgian rider took his fourth top 10 in this small taste of the Hell of the North.
« The cobble sections succeeded each other quickly and the peloton finally split on the third one. In this strong breakaway, I managed to react on the decisive attack. But I had to dig deep to join Dewulf and Kwiatkowski, and never really recovered from the effort. It is a pity that I couldn’t follow them on the final cobble section, but I really enjoyed my last road race. It was pleasant to conclude the road season in a free role, because I worked hard to accomplish my great ambition this year. I learned a lot in my first season in the World Tour, for example that I can be in the mix in the final of the biggest races, or on a tactical level to wisely use my efforts. It is with great satisfaction about my road season that I’ll do my first laps in the mud this weekend! »
